RIP: Nick Ashford of Motown duo Ashford & Simpson

Nick Ashford, one-half of the legendary Motown songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson that penned elegant, soulful classics for the likes of Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye and funk hits for Chaka Khan and others, died Monday at age 70, his former publicist said.

Ashford, who along with wife Valerie Simpson wrote some of Motown’s biggest hits, died in a New York City hospital, said publicist Liz Rosenberg, who was Ashford’s longtime friend. He had been suffering from throat cancer and had undergone radiation treatment, she told The Associated Press.

Though they had some of their greatest success at Motown with classics like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Reach Out And Touch Somebody’s Hand” by Ross and “You’re All I Need To Get By” by Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Ashford & Simpson also created anthems for others, like “I’m Every Woman” by Khan (and later remade by Whitney Houston). Ashford & Simpson also had success writing for themselves: Perhaps the best-known song they sang was the 1980s hit “Solid As A Rock.”

1. The largest lake in Great Britain
2. A Scottish folk song
3. A six-piece chamber pop group from Portland, OR

This all means that the band, headed by lead singer/multi-instrumentalist Ritchie Young, probably sports kilts and totes bagpipes, right?

Not exactly, but the tunes on their latest album, Little Me Will Start a Storm (released February 22 on Tender Loving Empire), lilt and flow and expand in a way that might make them sound as though they belong in the Scottish countryside. Young’s voice soars over and slips between a wild collection of instruments that includes vibraphone, piano, glockenspiel, and violin, just to name a few. They’re taking their pastoral sound on the road for a string of West Coast dates in September.

Nick Ashford, one-half of the legendary Motown songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson that penned elegant, soulful classics for the likes of Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye and funk hits for Chaka Khan and others, died Monday at age 70, his former publicist said.

Ashford, who along with wife Valerie Simpson wrote some of Motown’s biggest hits, died in a New York City hospital, said publicist Liz Rosenberg, who was Ashford’s longtime friend. He had been suffering from throat cancer and had undergone radiation treatment, she told The Associated Press.

Though they had some of their greatest success at Motown with classics like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Reach Out And Touch Somebody’s Hand” by Ross and “You’re All I Need To Get By” by Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Ashford & Simpson also created anthems for others, like “I’m Every Woman” by Khan (and later remade by Whitney Houston). Ashford & Simpson also had success writing for themselves: Perhaps the best-known song they sang was the 1980s hit “Solid As A Rock.”

The legality of BitTorrent use and the moral dilemma that comes hand in hand with media pirating is as pertinent an issue as gay rights or abortion laws (well, at least on the internet it is), and being the radical audiophile anarchists we at Tiny Mix Tapes are, we can’t help but root for the little guys who are doing their part to deliver the coup de grâce to the rapidly diminishing music industry. Never before has such a revolution been spearheaded by millions of frugal basement dwellers sitting on their asses and collectively deciding to stick it to the man. However, a recent study conducted by Northwestern University and Telefónica Research has revealed information suggesting that, with the growing amount of data being downloaded by BitTorrent users, ISPs such as Comcast (who are well known for capping their bandwidth in order to stagnate BitTorrent traffic) are actually profiting from the increased use of bandwidth (and here you were sitting in your Cheeto-dust-stained Che Guevara t-shirt, thinking you were taking chunks out of capitalistic society).

According to Torrent Freak, over a test period of two years, researchers monitored a sample of 500,000 people in 169 different countries and found some interesting conclusions. For example, between November 2009 and November 2010, the average download volume per user per hour had increased by 25% (a change of 110 MB/hour to 139 MB/hour), while the number of unique users dropped 10%. In total, the absolute increase in BitTorrent traffic increased by more than 12% between 2009 and 2010. Another facet of these findings is that a large percentage of BitTorrent traffic never leaves the country, and instead stays local (32%) while another 41% travels to just one other country.

So what does this all mean? Simply put, large ISPs who own the infrastructure (i.e., wires), such as Comcast, Virgin Media, and France Telecom, are attracting heavy downloaders who wish to spend more on their internet services for an increase in bandwidth. And since a large percent of BitTorrent traffic is local (or shared on these ISPs’ networks) it doesn’t cost them anything. Don’t fret though, there’s still a downside for smaller ISPs (such as Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint) who rent bandwidth and infrastructure from larger ISPs. Since they pay rent to the larger ISPs, any increased moving in data costs them, even if it’s local. And so, while the garroting of corporate profits marches on, we all must remember that corporations are people too (people with megalomaniac complexes, a disproportionate amount of control over political, economic, and social developments, and the power to suck you dry and make you love every second of it).

Percussion-based “drum ‘n’ shout” band Foot Village (a group composed of four drummers, two of which occasionally yell at you through megaphones) are embarking on an East Coast tour this October. Still coasting off the adrenaline of their third European tour (which included an appearance at the Portishead-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties at London’s Alexandra Palace) and a new release on FatCat, the trip will include another chant-inducing performance at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey along with several DIY shows along the East Coast.

To commemorate the tour, Foot Village are also holding a remix competition of one of their tracks, the 16-minute “Let Bebongs Be Bebongs, Idiot.” The best of the remixes will be included on a special tour release; you can grab the stems of the track here (I suggest adding some goddamn guitars to the mix, Auto-Tuning that shit, and phoning in a Nicki Minaj verse).

Tourdates are listed below, and if the band isn’t coming to your city, don’t worry. You should be able to hear their set from miles away.

Attention all under-appreciated folk(ish) rockers who are currently struggling to get the fuck out of the shadow of Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes. Here’s a nickel’s worth of free advice from criminally underrated singer/songwriter/coffeeshop savant Cass “Who?” McCombs: put out more shit with your name on it.

So you say that you’ve already released a pretty damn fine album in 2011 and toured behind it significantly? Well, Cass McCombs says “fuck you.” It’s time to quit slacking off already and put out ANOTHER new LP to chum up the press waters and get your name mentioned. In McCombs’ case, that new album is coming out November 8 on Domino. It’s titled Humor Risk, and it was recorded piecemeal at various locations around the US (maybe even… Wisconsin???) with producer Ariel Rechtshaid, who also worked on WIT’S END and Catacombs. And now look at him: on top of our venerable news feed YET AGAIN. And where are you? Holed up in some wifi-enabled cabin somewhere (also known as Caribou Coffee) reading Tiny Mix Tapes and titling songs after various Suicide Girls you’ve never met.

Oh, and just in case you’re questioning the quality exhibited on a second LP in the same year, you can listen to a new track from Domino’s SoundCloud. See, it’s great. Not that it even matters.